This is… astonishing. Either there were millions of original Americans, along the coasts — before the arrival of Europeans, for say 1,000 years… or, there were smaller numbers (well under a million), but living and thriving along the same seaways, for perhaps over 50,000 years — prior to 1492.
The staggering number of shells, in some of these mounds, essentially force either of these conclusions — on sheer mathematics. But I will focus, as Anon. did — on whether, perhaps — the ancestors of the Alabama cave paintings’ artists… we highlighted yesterday, may also have dined on oysters, in antiquity. It is not at all unlikely, given the wide array of midden sites, and given that the peoples of what came to be called the Americas were eating them, sustainably… as I say, for 20,000 years minimum. There has been no disclosure of the precise location of the Alabama caves, to prevent vandalism. But it is possible that they are near the gulf coast… which would make it all… triangulate. Smile….
Here is the story from Anon. (and CNN):
…Mound Key contained the shells of some 18.6 billion oysters harvested by the region’s Calusa tribe, the study estimated. About 200 miles (322 kilometers) north in Cedar Key, Florida, a site known as Shell Mound features the remains of an estimated 2.1 billion oysters….
“Oyster harvesting didn’t start 500 years ago with the arrival of Europeans,” said study coauthor Bonnie Newsom, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Maine and citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation, in the statement.
“Indigenous peoples had a relationship with and understood this species well enough to use it as part of their subsistence and cultural practices. Indigenous peoples have a lot to offer in terms of how to engage with this natural resource in ways that are sustainable….”
We need to learn what these wise peoples long ago knew — and we have ignored: the Earth is our… mother. Show more… respect. Smile… Updated guesses, below. [See prior post on the cave art for background]:
नमस्ते
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